Steel is a plethora of material that can be employed for a variety uses. In fact, it’s believed that more than 55% of the average car is composed of steel. The type of alloys used to manufacture it determines its flexibility, as they affect the material’s durability, strength and performance. For instance, the method the process of cooling the metal can have a significant effect on the microstructure of the metal and its overall properties. It can be altered to attain specific properties such as machinability, yielding strength, and corrosion resistance.
Steel is iron which has had other elements added to it in order to improve its physical properties and make the steel suitable for certain uses. The proportions of the additional alloying elements determines which class of steel a particular steel is part of and its overall performance in various applications.
For example stainless steel is composed of a minimum of 11% chromium, which makes it resistant to corrosion. This makes it perfect for a range of applications such as kitchen utensils or cutlery. Tool steel is a favorite because of its hardness and resistance to scratching. It is also used to hand tools and machine dies. Additionally, the high weldability and ductility of carbon steels makes them ideal for a wide range of applications. Electrical steel, on the other hand is one of the most specialized grades of steel that has silicon (typically 3%). This improves its magnetic properties, as well as reducing the loss of eddy-current. This makes it ideal for laminations and transformer cores of electric motors.